Custody officer duties turned out to civilians: a police officer explains the problems

My second post of the day is devolved to a subject of interest for the rights of the people in custody. The British system was of creating a "custody officer" who is directly responsible for whatever happens to the detainee, and who is also responsible for the respect of the rights of the latter. According to the blog http://coppersblog.blogspot.com maintained by a policeman, the government thinks about giving the job of custody officer to civilian personnel. The author of the blog criticizes the idea because the policemen will not be given to more street jobs. He believes that they will be instead bogged down by other bureaucracy work. I wonder now if giving the task of verifying that the legal guarantees are well provided for to a civilian is quite the right thing to do... On the other hand, the positive aspect is that there are more civlian "eyes" within the framework of custody...

If you are interested by the problem, and you wish to know more about the medical problems in custody, then I may invite you to read my thesis in bioethics which is freely available over here: http://dawnofeurope.250free.com/author.htm Click on the adequate link once on that page to download the document.

By the way, I also invite you to read my new online newsletter which touches to broader subjects than only human rights and bioethics: http://dawnofeurope.tk

This month's issue also has a series of interviews about the European constitution referenda and the French and Dutch "no". You can read them here: http://dawnofeurope.250free.com/issue/aw.htm